Funko

It’s that time of year again, Elf Fantasy Fair. And this year, too, we had a camp throughout the weekend. The weather was real nice, plus we had a good spot along one of the main walkways.

I did some walking around, checking out the sights and stands. I ate a candy apple, which I’d never had before. Also acquired some new loots. Them being the Star Trek Catan board game, the book Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and a Mal Reynolds (Firefly) Funko Pop. I’ve had the book and the game on my list for a while now, so I’m pleased I found them here. And very affordable as well, I got a good deal on the game especially.

Nienke and I started our gift exchange on the 24th. I had gotten her a cardboard cutout of David Tennant as Doctor Who. I’d hidden it at my Parent’s and then sneaked out in the afternoon to get it. I constructed it at my parents, walked it over to our front door, placed it and rang the bell.

Nienke opened the door and it was hilarious seeing her reaction. Full of surprise and laughter.

I’d also made a felt adipose to go with it. I found a pattern online and over two or three days made this. The feet are slightly too long, but it does help him sit better.

She gave me the blu ray of Mary Poppins, I love Mary Poppins! It’s one of my favourite musicals.

The rest of our gifts we exchanged the next day. I’d gotten Nienke a book of Ghost stories, a Supernatural mug, a small watch, guitar picks and chocolate sushi. She gave me a Supernatural book, a colouring book of cats, a box of chocolate and a Funko Pop of Anna from Frozen. She said one of the presents was still missing and that I would get that later. So I held back a present for her as well 😀

I love my prezzies: Anna fits perfectly with the Elsa I already have. I don’t have that many Supernatural books yet so more is always good, and the colouring book was already on my list.

The next day, Nienke was over at her parents, and my parents came over here for prezzies and dinner. I got Mom the new CD of Adele, Dad two nice animal prints and both of them some chocolate. They got me a nature documentary about the wild areas of the Netherlands, and a colouring book of the province.

We were going to eat raclette, so I pulled out the raclette set from the attic. I think the last time we used it was before I even moved out… So more than a decade at least. I plugged it in and we waited for it to get to temperature. But not two minutes later, the whole house went dark. A short.

Using my phone I made it over to the table to unplug the raclette. Then on to the cupboard to switch the circuit breakers back. When the lights were back on, I checked the raclette. It was really hot despite only being on for two minutes. It was quite obvious that the raclette was no longer safe for use.

We still needed to eat, so I piled the meats in an oven dish and placed that in the oven along with the veggies. In the end, the food was just as tasty like this. The desert was an ice cream cheese cake with caramel topping.

With the theme being Time, I couldn’t not get this box. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to the expectation. There were only four items in this box, which is really not enough. Maybe these items are higher value, but the box as a whole feels like a lesser value to me with so few items.

I love the sonic spork, using the Eleventh Doctor’s sonic screwdriver for the handle. Also a hit is the Funko Pop of Dr. Emmet Brown from Back to the Future. I don’t know much about that franchise. I am pretty sure I’ve seen all of the first movie at some point, and parts of the other two, but most of my knowledge of it is from pop culture memes. So this Pop wasn’t on my wishlist or anything, but he looks awesome and I’ve been wanting another general scifi Pop to go with Robby the Robot (Forbidden Planet).

Then there was a miniature replica hooverboard from Back to the Future. It looks nice, and comes in a pretty box, but that’s about it for me. This will be going in the gift box, as will probably the t-shirt. It’s from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Again one of those movies I think I’ve seen, but not sure. Plus the shirt is kinda tight compared to the one that was in the Fantasy Crate.

This month’s theme was Hyperspace. There were only five items in the box as opposed to the six or seven in previous months which was a little bit disappointing.

I love the little springy USS Enterprise, even if it feels somewhat cheap. The plushie BB-8 looks fantastic. I like it’s feel and design, but I don’t know yet if I’ll keep it. I’m not a huge Star Wars fan, I’ve seen the older movies once, a long time ago. I will be seeing the new movie once it’s out, so I’m keeping the plushie at least until then. Depending on what I think of the movie, and BB-8’s part in it, I’ll keep it or put it in the gift bin.

The Jurassic Galaxy art print is fantastic! It mashes Guardians of the Galaxy with Jurassic World with cameo appearances of Terminator and Star Wars. Beyond this print and the Doctor Who one from a previous box I’ve acquired some more art print or small poster stuff that I want to display. I haven’t quite figured out how I want to do that, though. but I am really excited about it.

The shirt this month is a Battlestar Galactica one combining the two versions of Cylons in a mash-up resembling a Daft Punk album cover. The last item was a Funko mystery box with a random Supernatural mini. I got Castiel, which I absolutely love! I am a bit puzzled though how Supernatural fits the theme.

Overall, I’m impressed with the individual items, but it did feel less as a whole with only five items of which only four fit the theme.

This month’s theme was Humanity’s Last Hope. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with that, but when I opened the Block today I found all kinds of goodies I really like.

There was, once again, a vinyl figure included in the box. Funko Pop Vinyls are very popular at the moment, I have about fifteen or so of them, but I really like these Titan Vinyls also. They are the same size as Funko’s but their defining characteristic is their overall slightly triangular shape. I like that their faces have more detail and that each comes with a prop. Last month’s Doctor came with a sonic screwdriver and Spike here came with a mug.

Then there was a surprise pack containing a dangly Transformer figure. I’m not well versed in Transformers so I have no idea which one this is supposed to be, but I do like it. Of similar size to the Transformer is the key chain Iron Man from Funko.

The next item I didn’t know what it was until I unwrapped it and then it turned out to be a Ghostbusters wallet. It’s made of thick sort of paper so I don’t think it’s really suited to actual use. It’s a nice gimmick, though. It’s an item to go in my box of potential gifts. This was followed by a Mad Max comic, which will be fun to read as I really enjoyed the movie.

This month’s shirt is a Karate Kid shirt. I had to look it up to be sure about what it was. I’ve seen the movie but it has been a while so I couldn’t quite remember. I like the shirt, even though it’s not one of my fandoms, and will enjoy wearing it.

I have this one webshop where I usually order my Funko figures (they have a lot, and also other geeky merch). Their prices are good, as is their delivery, when they have the relevant figures in stock. They are, however, quite bad at giving adequate expected arrival dates, and communicating with the customers. I have learned this over a handful of orders there, so I now build orders carefully. I don’t combine in stock items with pre-orders, and when pre-ordering, I choose those with a similar date.

Generally this works, but they still only rarely make the listed dates. I have an open pre-order for Smaug and Deathwing in late December or early January. They were listed as being available end of January. I still don’t have them. I also pre-ordered three of the new The Next Generation figures. They were listed as being available as end of April. So I figured they might be here around June.

But! Last week I got an e-mail, they were in! So I paid and today they pretties came 🙂 They will be joined at a later date by Data and Worf. I’m considering Crusher and Troi but I’m not sure yet about them.

After Christmas dinner it was time for prezzies. First we exchanged gifts with my parents, and after they left, Nienke and I continued the unwrapping party with our gifts for each other.

We’d already given each other one of the prezzies the day before, but now it was time for the rest. We usually set a budget, and always go over, but I think we never went quite as far over as we did this year 😀

Mom and Dad gave me the CD with the soundtrack of Guardians of the Galaxy. A definite hit as the songs keep getting stuck in my head 🙂 I got Mom a bath set with lotion and fluffy things, and for Dad dried meat sausages, he always likes a good sausage.

Nienke gave me awesome things! Starfleet Academy and Medical Academy buttons, a necklace of the Elven brooch given to the Hobbits, a colouring book and a cute story book, a letter E, and the best thing ever: a USS Voyager model kit. I’ll have to order paint first, but I can’t wait to build it.

I got Nienke a Comic Con Exclusive Buffy Pop Vinyl, the eleventh Doctor’s sonic screwdriver, a 1:64 model of the Impala from Supernatural along with a replica of Dean’s necklace that Sammy gave him, blue fuzzy gloves, a guitar stand and the unicorn plush from Despicable Me. The cats each got a toy, as well.

Then tonight Kim came by to watch the Olivier B. Bommel movie Als je begrijpt wat ik bedoel and then we saw Flushed Away before also exchanging gifts.

I’d gotten both Nienke and Kim a chocolate bar, and gave Kim a set of mugs with owls on it, as well as a bracelet with a Mockingjay pin. I’d also gotten some toys and candies for her cats. She got me chocolate, fudge and a Pop Vinyl of Invisible Bilbo!

Illidan: “You are not prepared!” Arthas: “WTF dude!? I’m not the enemy here!”

Woohoo! Illidan & Arthas finally arrived today, aren’t they cute?

I finished reading the second and third part of the Maze Runner trilogy. I really like the world building, how the current dystopian society was formed. The science, and sociology, behind the whole thing is fascinating. I also liked how you could never quite trust anyone. That being said, the books do feel rushed sometimes, and the ending is too easy. I am, hoever, interested enough that I will be reading the prequel sometime in the future.

I also read If I Stay. It’s a good book, well written, good characters and the story is well done. I was a wee bit disappointed, though. This because the story is really a romance and I was expecting a bit more supernatural elements besides the obvious one.

Started watching Resurrection on TV. It’s a show where an eight-year-old, American boy is found wandering in China. After he is returned, he is placed in the temporary case of an immigrations officer. He tries to figure out where the boy is from, and returns to his hometown with him. There, it turns out he is the son of a local couple. The catch, though? He died 30 years ago…

DNA testing and the like proves that he is in fact their son. The rest of the series deals with how the family and the town people (once they find out) deal with this, especially as more resurrected people show up. I find it really interesting, and it features Omar Epps (Dr. Foreman on House) as the immigration cop.

The first season is only 8 or 10 episodes, and they show 2 an evening, so it should only take a few weeks to finish.

Ooh, and miracle of all miracles, Nienke suggested we play a board game, the other day 😀 So we played Rummicub.

Had a needed lie-in this morning. Last night I went out for dinner with my aunt and uncle, their kids and grandkids, and my parents. All in honour of my uncle’s 80th birthday. We went back to Yankee Doodle, where we’d also been with them last March. Had a great time, but didn’t sleep well. I woke up around three and lay awake until seven. I entertained myself playing iPad games and messing with the cats.

When I got downstairs, I found Captain had slept on the sofa 🙂 So much progress in just a few days!

And in the afternoon my new Pop Vinyls arrived. Special ordered from Australia a few weeks ago, which is not something I’ll probably repeat soon. The shipping charges are atrocious. I picked the cheapest option and it still was half of the cost of the dolls while taking weeks and offering no tracking or anything. I figured it would be okay, but it is still weird waiting for it. Ah well, winged Castiel and the mystery item I bought for Nienke for December gift giving make up for it.

Now I have to go and get ready. I’m off to the Oosterpoort tonight for my birthday present to myself: a concert by the St. Petersburg Chamber Choir singing the Vespers of Rachmaninoff.